Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Terenos]

Calling back to the others in the other room
"I say this is fascinating! Come down here and look. Are these your people Valer? Magnificent! So lifelike!"

[Criptfeind]

Valer was quite surprised to see the undead queen and the fiery old man just casually stroll into the chamber that had been so hard to achieve. But it made sense after he heard their story.

"Er. Welcome then Queen. And, I suppose you have. Although I see now that I have not played a proper game of the divine. Let us see how this works."

The Magma man walked over Varian and inspected the board.

"Amazing. I do believe they are. I don't know if they are precisely my tribe, but certainly they are my people. Does the board wish us to play with them? I am not not sure how I feel about that. Are there other options for the set up? And if we did play, what would our objectives be? And our wagers... A fascinating artifact.

I can feel. That we are as gods now. But certainly very weak. Perhaps we should play a game then?"

[Kashyyk]

Slipping in behind the Queen was Kwong Xing, purveyor of secrets, knowledge and unknowns. He was not one to brashly reveal facts about himself or others, and was willing to allow Ramespi to make her elaborate introductions. Following the group into the room, he examined the board. It was different to the one that he had heard described, although it made sense for each diety to add their own spin on their set of the game. He wondered if it extended to the players also...

As he came to this conclusion, he felt the urge to sit. Giving in, he approached the timber block and it seemed to shift and change before settling on a simple, but well-made cushion. Kneeling upon it, he saw that the once plain deck of cards had also changed, to bear his clan symbol.

Thinking deeply, he tried to decide on what he wanted of the game, and what he was willing to risk. Whilst the memory of Chenxiang would prove illuminating, he doubted it still existed in this world. He was also loath to bet his new-found power so quickly, but was unsure of what else he possessed that the game would accept...

[Iituem]

Kwong Xing: As you ponder on an appropriate wager, the board seems to respond in kind.  A handful of images appear over your playing space; a rising sun, a dragon, chains... The images are a little abstract, but you pick up on the meaning; you can bet power, you can bet conditional bound service, you can bet anything that you feel is of equal value to what is being wagered by your opponents in general.

Following a whim you pass your hand through the table's softly glowing orb a few times and watch the scene change; the magmanarian volcano; a blue lagoon by a deep marine trench, with a witch's hut on the shore; the ruins of a dwarven citadel, broken by the wrath of the mountain; a bright city on the Storm Coast (that looks suspiciously like the city of Avistral); a broad valley split by a wide river, baked in sun; a distant, sculpted valley with the manors of two Oriental clans... and back to this valley.  It looks like you have a choice of boards.

[Terenos]

Varian smiles at the older man. "Your companion was kind enough to introduce herself, so why not you? And do you drink good sir? This bottle is rumored to be an excellent vintage."

Watching the board change, Varian d'Avistral sat. Presented with the same images regarding the wager, Varian spoke with confidence.

"I have always been a gambling man. What I just won shall 'ride' as they say. I'll wager power, if any of you will do the same we can discuss what the game shall be."

[Criptfeind]

Valer sat down on one of the seats around the board. Watching it change for the man.

"Aye. If we want to gamble, that seems the most appropriate chip."

[Kashyyk]

"You ask many questions for one who offers so little in return, but your point is a good one. Politeness costs a man nothing. I am Kwong Xing, you might not know me, but I know a little about you. And I only drink on completion of a deal, the start of this game seems appropriate enough."

Pausing for a second on the valley of Orientals, he appears to think for a moment.

"Whilst your willingness to gamble your immortality is admirable, if you'd had the time to experience it's advantages, you'd be less inclined to throw it away. I instead offer a different wager. Servitude, until either myself or the other either dies or ascends to true godhood."

[Terenos]

"And I am Varian d'Avistral. Tis a pleasure most certainly.

As regards wagering the power I just claimed... that is why I am willing to cast it aside quickly. Else I'll become frightened and afraid of what comes after it is gone. However I accept your wager, and will even sweeten it by saying you shall not be required to expend all of your power in our service."

[Criptfeind]

"Servitude? That's a interesting request. But I don't see the merit in it. I have no wish to own another being, and it seems to make little forward progress in any of our goals. Perhaps if I was gambling with or as a greater deity I could see it being of more worth, but as it is I see little reason not to bet with the little I have all the way. If for some reason you want my servitude rather then my power, then sure, I will wager that to you, but I don't want your service, so if that is all you will offer, then you have nothing to offer."

((From a out of game prospective, I don't know if servitude sounds appropriate for us since we have so little power right now. I don't know what servitude actually means in this context, but I can't see a interpretation that makes it a attractive option. Ether that means that the servant is forced to do what the master says in game, which is probably going to break the game and make it less fun to play. Or the servant is forced to do that the master says out of game... Which means it's just as bad as betting your divinity for the loser, since the master will have him do something, thus burning away all his stats and putting him out of the game. But is also actually worse for the master as well, since at least at this point it seems like that in a majority of cases it's less flexible, and puts the winner in a position to be out of the game next round.

Now, eventually, when the players are much stronger and have strong aspects, then yes. It makes sense if you need something specific to go after the god that can do that the easiest, because that way both people win, with the loser having to do something that he can do cheaply and thus lose the least, and the winner getting what it wants. But for now, we might as well bet power.))

[Weirdsound]

(Yeah. The issue I see right now, is that the only worthwhile bet, at this point, is to boot somebody out of the game for a mere single point of strength. Servants would be nice in the long run, but at this point, we would just then be responsible for improving both ourselves and our vassals.

I honestly can't think of anything good to bet right now. The only thing any of us has worth anything is power, and if we all bet that, we all have a 4/5th chance of being booted from the game. If there could be more than one winner, it might hard to divide all the power from the losers evenly among all the winners.

Can we do things on our intermission other than Miracles or Legendary Feats? It might be best to all split up, gather things to wager, and agree to meet back here for a game or tournament.)

[Terenos]

Admittedly us potentially getting knocked out of the game is the risk. But its not as though we cant have some turnover of characters. Also, lets risk it. Cmon! Are you so attached to a character you've barely used?

Also yeah, what else could we wager? I mean, if we could go on adventures (tiny blurbs of us gaining a cool thing that might help us in a Game or can be put up as a potential wager), or suchlike. But yeah, we dont have much here.

[Criptfeind]

((Huh. How much of this game is suppose to be the roleplaying and the like out of game stuff? To be honest, I had just thought that the point of this game was the card game, and all the other stuff was just nice side fluff to give context to what we are doing. I don't have issues with Valer dying/losing all his power because to me he was just a easily replaceable vehicle to enjoy a card game. I was just thinking of divinity and strength and whatnot as like, score. Or fake poker chips. Clearly though, not everyone is thinking that way.

Edit for clarification: If you guys are attached to your characters and your roleplay, and you want to play stakeless games, that's fine with me.))

[Iituem]

Hmm.  Well, important items might be a nice thing to gamble (and yeah, it's all fluff in the end and the divinity points are more for the overgame), but I suppose you could come up with other things to wager - the service of your people, perhaps, although yes at this stage in the game you don't really have enough to gamble with except your lives.

And yeah, you can totally go on adventures during the intermission, although that risks this game becoming even more complicated.  I'd rather keep non-miracle adventure within the Great Game, myself.  For now, though, let's keep with the potential knock-out bets (after all, that was the risk in the first game).

[Terenos]

So yeah. Me and Cript are down for a Power game. Anyone else in? You gotta risk yourself sometime.

[Weirdsound]

Admittedly us potentially getting knocked out of the game is the risk. But its not as though we cant have some turnover of characters. Also, lets risk it. Cmon! Are you so attached to a character you've barely used?

Also yeah, what else could we wager? I mean, if we could go on adventures (tiny blurbs of us gaining a cool thing that might help us in a Game or can be put up as a potential wager), or suchlike. But yeah, we dont have much here.

(It is not so much that we risk being knocked out of the game, it is that the most likely/obvious scenario involves all but one of us getting knocked out of the game. I get where you are coming from with the whole 'play to have fun' thing, but I suspect some of our characters don't think that way, including mine. Somebody with a clever character will have to come up with a scheme to limit the carnage. Actually, I got an idea...)

The queen examines the the other players, and scratches her mask. "The way I see it, we all want to play, but we are all afraid of, or at least hesitant of, the wager... So how about we set it up so that multiple games are played, but so that there is only one loser."

She casually approaches the board, and elegantly sweeps through the map. "How about this. Four games. The first of which will include all of us, and is for a bye to skip the second game. For the second game, we will split into two teams of two, with the winner of the first game sitting out. The losing team of the second game will play against each other in the third, and the loser of that will forfeit their claim to divinity. The two players who have won the second game, along with the winner of the first game, play in the fourth game to win the divinity that the loser of the third game has lost."

Ramespi lets out a satisfied sigh. "Assuming the board accepts such a complicated scheme, we all get plenty of practice, a chance to get to know one another, and nobody gets eliminated unless they lose three straight games. Even if you don't win, you will have the chance to alter the world in your favor through your playing, so it is still a pretty good deal for everybody except the loser."